Ion Propulsion Engine
Summary
NASA began the high-risk project Deep Space One in 1995. The team was given just three years to get from blueprint to launch pad. They created a spacecraft with twelve new technologies - none had ever been tested before.
Of these, three were the most important, which would change space travel forever: a totally new type of engine, a smart navigation system, and the ability to repair itself.
The first challenge was to create a spacecraft that could propel the spacecraft over a billion miles away from earth. For that, they needed enormous power in a small package. They chose ion drive. The first ion drive was actually conceived during World War II, by rocket scientist Werner von Braun. When he came to the United States after the war, von Braun began to think of a rocket engine that would eventually become the ion drive - using electricity.
Keywords: Ion Propulsion, smart navigation, RI drive, Deep Space One, Ion Drive, Werner Von Braun
